Zika, Lyme drive big increase in bug-borne disease in U.S.

From NBC News
May 1, 2018

More and more Americans are being infected with diseases carried by ticks and mosquitoes, federal researchers reported Tuesday.

More than 640,000 Americans were infected by so-called vector-borne diseases between 2004 and 2016, and nine new diseases, from Bourbon virus to Zika, have shown up, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

In 2004, just 27,388 cases of these diseases were reported. In 2016, more than 96,000 were. These numbers are almost certainly an underestimate, the CDC added.

Most of the increase comes from the arrival of the Zika virus in 2015 and from ticks. Longer, hotter summers are not helping, said Dr. Lyle Petersen of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

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